Kitty rolled out of bed and groaned for a moment before she hopped out of bed and got dressed in some workout clothes. As much as she wanted to tear Peter a new one for his attitude last night, she would give him 24 hours to apologize before she let loose on him for loosing his temper at her. Woe be for him though if he didn't come up with a suitable apology, she was a lot of things, a patient and understanding person just didn't happen to be one of those things though. Kitty smirked as she saw Hermione was still asleep in her bed, she walked over to the bed and flipped her out of the bed.
"What?" Hermione said groggily, as she was unceremoniously tossed to the floor.
"Good morning." Kitty said in a chipper voice that she didn't really feel. "I told you we would be training, and so guess what? Its time to train."
"Train what train?" The girl asked in confusion. "Its way to early for the Hogwart's Express to be here yet."
Kitty chuckled sympathetically at this, and knelt down beside the girl, not everyone could wake up and be semi conscious enough to start a fight. "Remember the exercise you wanted me to help you with?" Kitty asked, the girl nodded as she became more awake. "Good, get dressed in some clothes, probably sweats would do you good unless you can stand wearing shorts while it rains." Kitty said with a grin. She then walked over to Hermione's trunk and found a pair of sweats and tossed them at the girl, Kitty herself was wearing baggy pants and a sports bra. The mutant then grabbed her communicator while the witch was getting dressed and called Peter. "Hey web head wake up!"
"What do you think I'm doing?" An irritated voice asked. "I'm about ready to head down."
"Yeah? Well before you do that wake up Ron and Harry. Hermione told me that the three of them are joining us today for some of our training."
"You sure about that?" Peter asked with concern, "they may not need to see much to see that we move a bit better than most people, besides I wanted to try and do some agility tests with this tree I heard about its called a Whomping Willow."
"That actually does sound like it would be interesting and worth checking out, but we'll have to save it for some other time. Right now though, I want you to get those two lazy lumps out of bed. Besides we need to see what they can do if we are going to help them." Kitty explained to him.
"Right, I'll wake them up and I'll see you in fifteen. Hopefully." He said before signing off.
"Right, come on." Kitty said grabbing her bag and heading out the door. Hermione slumped onto the couch in the common room and dozed while Kitty went through a small kata. Twenty minutes later the three boys came downstairs though, Harry and Ron were sending glares at Peter's back that would make most people worried Peter had been subjected to far worse and continued walking. The two American's hauled the three British teens out of the castle and toward the lake.
"Right, now that we finally got you out here." Kitty said, glaring at the boys who mumbled about only mental people being out this early in the morning.
Kitty rolled her eyes and began instructing them on how to stretch themselves out. Harry and Hermione had been instructed the basics in regular school before, and quickly caught onto the stretches that were required, and were able to help Ron when he misunderstood Kitty's instructions. "All right now," Kitty said as she looked at the three of them, "I want you three to run an entire lap around the lake. Peter and I will be checking on you to make sure that you're doing okay. All we want out of you for the start is one lap, once you manage that we'll work our way up to two laps and so on."
"Bloody hell, you want us to run around that bloody thing?" Ron asked as he looked at them incredulously.
"Yes Ron, that's what she said." Peter said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides, be glad you aren't at our level yet."
"And why's that?"
Peter smirked at the red head. "Simple, we have to run five laps, and if Kitty's mentor were here he would probably make us run two or three times as much as that."
"He's not bad." Kitty said with a smirk, knowing that if Logan ever on his hands on Peter that he probably would do something like that just to spite him.
"Right." Peter said disbelievingly.
"Oh, before I forget put your wands in here." Kitty said, as she gestured to her duffel bag. "We don't want someone to accidentally use an energy spell or something like that now would we?" Ron's face fell, letting the others know that had been exactly what he had planned as they all tossed their wands into a bag.
"Is there a reason we're doing this in the rain?" Harry asked them, as they all started off.
Peter chuckled at this. "Think of it this way Harry, it helps you wake up without needing a shower or something to drink, or even a caffeine transfusion."
"Something tells me I don't want to see you on coffee." Harry said, as he tried to go faster with Ron, while Hermione kept a steady pace alongside Peter and Kitty. The two boys quickly became red faced, and tried to stop but Kitty and Peter refused to allow them to fall down, and kept them moving even though all three of them were barely walking by the time they made their way around the lake. Peter and Kitty kept their amusement to themselves since they knew that they had several advantages over the other three teens that made a single lap around the lake seem as nothing to them, after the two showed the others the cool down procedures they continued their own laps.
"So is that all?" Ron asked hopefully of them as the two finished their laps.
"Yeah for today." Kitty said, as she wiped some sweat and rain out of her face with a towel. "You can either go back and take a shower and breakfast, or you can watch Peter and me go through some other stuff they we do, some of it we will be adding into your training if you let us."
"Remind me why we're doing this?" Ron Weasley asked them.
"Because Hermione volunteered you," Kitty said simply, "if you have any complaints they'll have to be registered with her, but after a month."
Ron groaned loudly at this. "A whole bloody month?"
"Yep, that way you can see some of the advantages working out gives you before you try to sneak out of it." Kitty told him. "Come on Peter, lets see if you learned anything about that sword of yours." Kitty said, as she drew her wooden katana out, while Peter pulled his own wooden rapier out.
"What are you going to do with those sticks knock the bludgers away from you?" Ron asked, unimpressed with the training swords.
"What? Are you actually saying you don't even want to learn a bit about swordplay?" Peter asked in surprise at the redhead. "This is after all one of the safer ways for beginners to start without having to worry about chopping off a body part by accident."
"Who the bloody hell uses a sword anymore these days though?" Ron asked them as if they were crazy.
"Ron language."
"I mean why not just use your wand?" Ron said ignoring Hermione's chastising.
"Like my wand would have been that much help in second year." Harry told his friend snorting in amusement as he crossed his arms. "I'm sure that Basilisk's can be turned into nice safe things, right Mione?"
"Well actually Harry, because they're magical creatures, and that particular Basilisk was approximately a 1000 years old, possibly more he was most likely invulnerable to any spell you knew at that time."
"So what, you saying there might be a spell that I've learned since then that might hurt something like that?" Harry said disbelievingly.
"Maybe," Hermione reluctantly admitted, "its hard to be sure it also depends on how badly you wanted to be able to fight it as well."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you were able to summon a patronus at the age of 13 after you studied the spell for nearly a year, so it stands to reason that you would be able to perform another such powerful spell if you were to truly focus on learning the skills required to perform the spell."
"See, no reason to teach us then." Ron crowed at Kitty and Hermione as if he had won the discussion.
"Hardly Ron, you two aren't exactly well known for your study habits, even with the fact wizards do learn slightly faster than your average muggle, it would still be foolish to ignore this."
"Yeah Ron, besides it might be interesting addition to add to our list of tricks."
"And we'll be teaching some hand to hand tricks," Peter added. "Who knows, in a year or so you might be able to pin the twins to the walls without your wand." Peter added in for the red head. "Are you telling me that doesn't even interest you the least bit?"
"Umm?" Ron replied suddenly uncertain about what he should choose. "All right, I'll try it for now." The redhead said grudgingly.
"Good, now sit back and watch while Peter and I go through sword forms. I want you to think what kind of sword you think you might be best suited to use as we're doing it as well."
"There are more than one kind of sword?" Ron asked in surprise.
"Yeah Ron just about every culture has a sword of its own." Harry said. "They also have their own unique ways to fight with them as well."
"Where did you learn about this?" Hermione asked curiously, she knew this as well but was curious how Harry knew it.
Peter laughed at this. "It's just a guy thing Hermione, eventually guys have to look up weapons and see what they are. Its like it's in a guy's genetic coding or something like that, its part of the whole X, Y chromosome thing. The only difference is what interests them. Some go for guns, some swords ,some knives, some go for things like tanks, and then there are those that go for the weapons that they make themselves."
Harry blushed but nodded in agreement at this. "I was curious after using the Gryffindor sword and looked a bit up on them over the holidays that year, and since they um asked me to stay in my room at the time I was able to look at the books in there that Dudley didn't use, which just happened to include every book ever bought for him, and after that incident with Aunt Marge I studied a lot of sword books at Diagon alley when I was bored."
"Mate, they asked you to stay in a room with bars over your window." Ron said angrily, mad about how his friend was treated by his relatives. "Your aunt more than bloody well deserved what she got that time around. If anyone else in the wizarding world had heard them saying that stuff about your folks they'd have done a whole lot more than just turn that windbag into a windbag."
"Drop it Ron." Harry said gruffly. "Besides, that was the year before that they kept me in my room." He added almost carelessly. The two stared at each other for a minute, and Ron kept opening his mouth to say something but closed his mouth before he said anything, while Hermione stood between the two while they had a silent argument with their eyes. Kitty and Peter turned away for a moment and examined the training weapons, not wanting to get involved in something they clearly had no right to get involved in. Hermione meanwhile just stared at the two of them in shock, her mouth opening and closing before she gave Harry a giant bone crushing hug before the other two turned back around to face the trio.
"Lets head out to the Quidditch field shall we?" Kitty said with a bit of forced cheer.
"You mean the pitch right?" Ron asked her.
"Same diff, come on." The group walked to the empty pitch and the two Americans went through a handful of stretches before they began. The trio watched as Peter and Kitty first went through a series of what Kitty explained were kata's that were to teach Peter balance and control of his weapon. Ron had quickly lost interest in the slow movements that the two were going through and was now dozing in his seat, while Harry and Hermione watched the two train with interest. Slowly but surely the two of them began to move faster and faster, as Peter got the hang of what he was doing. Kitty finally stopped the kata, and the two of them began to do what they called fencing, though they did move much faster than the witch and wizard thought possible for people to move, they weren't quiet blurs, but they did move at speeds they doubted that they would be able to match. They then heard Kitty's voice calling out over the cracking of wood slamming together as she began explaining to Peter what he should be doing, whether it was to protect a particular body part, or if it was to explain how his attacks were off.
Hermione was particularly interested in Peter's weapon and was in fact holding a spare practice weapon in her hand as she examined it. "Merlin they are impressive aren't they?" She asked her awake friend, as the two of them continued to watch as Peter pushed off from the wall and flipped over Kitty then did a slashing movement that Kitty almost casually blocked by pulling the weapon over her head and down across her back blocking the blow.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "they are pretty brilliant with those." They watched as Kitty then pushed the two swords up while she spun around and let loose a kick that Peter barely ducked under and rolled out of her range before springing back up.
"Think we'll ever be able to do that sort of stuff?" He asked her as Kitty put Peter on the defensive by using a number of moves from the kata that they had been doing earlier.
"With practice we might be able to, just remember Harry that they have both had training of some kind or another in how to fight before this." Hermione warned him, knowing how easily he became discouraged over things, as Kitty disarmed Peter who then tried to kick the sword out of her, hand but Kitty caught the leg and twisted. Peter twisted in the air with her and landed on his feet with a blade pointed at his stomach.
"You loose." Kitty said with a smirk, as she pulled her practice weapon back. The two now finally finished packed their gear up, waking Ron up who groaned about being stiff all over.
"Hey its your own fault." Peter told him, "If you hadn't gone to sleep you would have been better off, now you have to deal with the fact that you allowed your muscles to set and deal with the consequences. Come on let's go and get showers and all of that though before you can't even move anymore." Peter said, only half joking, wincing as he watched the redhead as he stumbled along toward the castle.
Once they were inside and Hermione had cast drying charms on them, they then all went up to their rooms to take showers and get dressed in their school clothes, or as Peter called them their torture outfits. Peter grinned at Neville as they entered the boy's dorm after their showers, leading a slightly less pain filled Ron in. "Hey Nev, what's up?" He asked as he pushed Ron toward his bed, where he slowly began placing his clothes on.
"What happened to him?" Neville asked in shock nodding toward Ron, who was moving at only about a quarter of his usual speed.
"Ah, don't worry to much." Peter said with a grin. "He's just trying to shake off the pain of one of Kitty's exercises, give him a few more hours and he'll be back to his usual self.
"You sure?" Neville said, doubtfully as he watched the redhead slowly bend over to tie his shoes. "He acts like he should be in the hospital wing."
"Nah he'll be okay in a few. Hey cuz, you want to join us in the whole exercise thing? It might make people look at you differently."
"I dunno," the boy said uncertainly, his eyes kept on flicking back to Ron.
"If you pace yourself you won't end up like that," Peter said, "and I think Ron and Harry learned better than to try and rush through this kind of work."
"To right mate." Ron said feebly from his bed where he was lying.
"All right then I'll try it." Neville said meekly though.
"Just so you know, you agree to this your in for at least a month." Peter warned his cousin. "That way you can see some changes and what not with what you're doing."
"A month?" Neville gulped loudly at this and looked a bit pale now his eyes now glued to where Ron was.
"Yeah a month cuz last chance to back out."
"Maybe I'll try it later." Neville stuttered before he scurried out of the room.
Peter shook his head. "Sooner or later your going to have to stand up for what you believe in Neville." He called out after his retreating cousin. "With Kitty and I helping, you can at least stand up to them."
Neville paused in the doorway before he nodded and turned back around to face them. "Can you really help me?" He asked his cousin hopefully.
Peter nodded, "I can help you with getting the tools that you need Neville, but it'll be up to you whether or not you do anything about it."
Neville nodded before he walked on out. Peter nodded, he knew that he had planted a seed in Neville's mind he couldn't really expect to do much more than that. Peter rummaged around in his trunk for a moment finding what he wanted he tossed Harry an order form for training weapons. "This ought to help you with your weapon choice." Harry nodded as he began to look it over.
Kitty grinned as Hermione finally came out of the shower, the girl still looked a bit the worst for wear but seemed to be making a comeback. She was actually in slightly better shape than Harry had been, though the guy did have more endurance and speed than one would expect from a guy that wasn't fighting for his life almost everyday, Ron on the other hand had long legs that ate up the distance and had a lot more raw muscle from his usual country living. As it was, she could easily see that the three had been forced to use their physical abilities almost as much as they had their magical ones, the only difference was that they didn't train those abilities except for climbing all the stairs in this place, which seemed to keep a person in reasonable shape as far as she could tell. To bad being in reasonable shape wasn't what she needed, she happened to like the looks that guys sent her due to her constant working out, and since there wasn't an abundance of people to fight here, she would have to come up with other ways to counter that. She would also have to have Brian send a weight set to her, she could enhance the weights later on to work for her at the level that she needed. She chuckled at this, she could actually use a cheap set of 10-pound weights and actually work like she was doing 50 or 60 pounds worth of lifting after a simple spell.
"Here." Kitty said, handing Hermione an order form. "Here's all the info on getting training swords don't bother getting the real thing till your sure that you can actually do it though all right?" Hermione nodded, as she looked the forms over. "Don't worry about price either, if you think you need help talk to me and Brian will help you out. Consider it repayment for the summer tutoring that you gave us. Kitty said with a smile before the bushy haired witch could object. The girl had been invaluable in unlocking the knowledge the three Lords of Magic had bestowed upon her and Peter, making her someone that was worth knowing. It was true they didn't know anything more about their animal forms, but they had become extremely efficient in all of the other types of magic and a lot of that was thanks to her.
"Thanks." Hermione said with a grin, as she quickly got dressed and began going over the order form for training weapons learning about the various types there were. She was looking at the instruction manuals when she came upon some interesting information." Hey Kitty, do either of you own a pensive?"
"No why?"
"Well according to this, the owner of the sword company rents out his memories of training and such things, and if we had a pensive we could view the lessons and learn a bit more."
"And a pensive is what?" Kitty asked staring blankly at her roommate.
"Oh, it's a magical device that you can use to either store or watch your memories from." Hermione explained to her eagerly.
"Sounds like something that could be used for less than good." Kitty said shaking her head sadly, knowing all to well that sometimes a memory could be the most painful thing ever.
"I suppose so." Hermione agreed with a curious look at the other girl.
"Come on, I'm hungry." Kitty said with a grin, "and if we wait to long Ron and Peter will have eaten it all before we get there, and whatever's left will have been spiked by the twins." Hermione agreed not particularly wanting to be on the receiving end of one of the twin's so called pranks.
The fifth years all trooped down and had breakfast and Ron and Hermione had an argument over her abilities in sewing, which resulted in the two of them not talking to each other for the rest of the morning, which probably was why Ron seemed so miserable after Charms and Transfiguration. That and the giant piles of homework that they were all accumulating, though Peter aced all of the Charms questions and Kitty all of the Transfiguration ones making it so that each of them were clear from doing homework from one class each. The trio was also being slightly wary of the Americans as they remembered Peter's comments in D.A.D.A about not caring whether or not Voldemort was truly back or not. Then there was also the fact that they were both obviously well versed in combat.
The two enjoyed a simple lunch, getting to know their housemates and discussing various things with them. When the lunch period ended they then joined their fellow fifth years and headed down to C.O.M.C where the woman who had lead the first years when they had first arrived was teaching. The lesson was interesting, though the bowtruckles they were introduced to overly impressed neither Peter nor Kitty. The only thing of interest had been when Kitty had been forced to grab Peter by the arm when the golden trio's tree guardian had made a break for it since he had unconsciously been about to shoot a spray of webbing at the small creature. Neville had looked at the two curiously before shrugging whatever they were doing off and returned to drawing his own bowtruckle.
Once they were all finished they headed for herbology where Harry was attacked by Luna and then a pompous guy by the name of Ernie who declared in their own unique ways that they actually believed in what he and Dumbledore said about Voldemort being back. In Peter's opinion this raised the two since it went against popular belief, even if the two of them didn't have the guts to say the name of the wizard out loud.
"So what can you tell us about this class?" Peter asked Neville as they all finally walked in. "Hermione says that you are the best in this year and possibly the year above when it comes to dealing with magical plants. 'The Green Thumb of Hogwarts' she says."
Neville smiled, though he did look embarrassed about being considered so good. "Yeah, depending on which greenhouse we go into will depend on what we do, but I think that all we'll be doing is a lot of review, which means that we'll be fertilizing a lot of plants today. Hope you don't mind dragon dung." He joked while looking uncertainly at the Americans.
"Dragon dung?" Kitty asked wrinkling her nose in disgust. "You use dragon manure on your plants?"
"Its Professor Sprout's favorite type of fertilizer, and since a number of former Hogwarts people make it into whatever work they want there's a couple of Dragon Keepers from Hogwarts who help keep her well supplied. Ron's brother is one in fact."
"A Dragon Keeper? Sounds like an interesting job, though it might be a little tame compared to some of the jobs we do in the city." Peter said with a grin. "And wrestling dragons is a lot harder than you would think."
"Wrestling dragons?" Neville asked unsure whether or not Peter was pulling his leg, but not real sure that he wanted to find out either.
"Yeah, the only way you can get them to stop going on a rampages and destroying everything in their path I've found out is usually to hit them pretty squarely on the nose like a dog with a rolled up newspaper. It makes them stop most of the time and look around. Though you do have to be careful of the angle your at so you don't get roasted from their fire breath."
"Just like a boy to think that every answer comes with using violence." Kitty said rolling her eyes at Peter with a grin. "Ever try talking to them before you start trying to hit them?"
"Sure, but they usually try and barbecue me when I do that." Peter defended himself.
"Is that before or after you insult them with one of your corny jokes that you happen to think are actually funny?"
"Hey I'm not that bad."
"Yes you are." Kitty told him in a voice that brooked no argument.
"See what having people that know all about you does?" Peter told Neville with a wry grin. "They think that they can tell you all about yourself whenever they want to."
Neville chuckled at this enjoying the fact that his cousin was so willing to be with him despite his clumsy tendencies. The three got silent as they finally entered the greenhouse and the lesson began, and true to Neville's assessment they did come out smelling of dragon dung after the class was over.
The three sat down to their meal and watched sympathetically as Angelina Johnson then verbally attacked Harry over his detention, the girl yelled at him for about five minutes before storming away and sat down surrounded by the rest of her team. "Don't you think you were a little hard on him?" Kitty asked her.
"Shut it Pryde." The girl said in annoyance while doing her best to ignore the angry scowls the Weasley twins were pointing at her. "When you're on a team and understand what it means to."
Kitty leaned over and glared the girl in the eyes. "Finish that sentence in any way that isn't complimentary and I'll shove those words right down your throat." Kitty threatened the older girl in a cold, deadly and menacingly voice. "I've watched people I care for disappear to the point that I thought that they were all dead, I stood there and watched as my best friend died and I watched my team disappear from all existence, I watched as hundreds of people that I knew died, so don't think that I won't take those words of yours and shove them so far down your throat that they come out the other way." The dark skinned girl nodded fearfully before turning to her food.
"Dear, Dear Kitty we must admit to being impressed." Fred said with surprise.
"Why we think even Oliver would have been forced into silence after that little display." George said with awe.
Peter chuckled while Kitty merely blushed at having been singled out like that. Peter, Kitty and Harry then went and headed for their detentions that they had gotten. The three strode in to see Umbridge who had surrounded herself with various flowery and lacy items that made all three of the teens want to go back outside and throw up. That didn't even include the smells from all the various things were making, individually they might have smelled nice, but all together it smell awful as each rosy scent competed with each other for dominance in the small office room. Peter and Kitty both had to fight their laughter though when Umbridge greeted them and they saw that the woman was wearing a set of robes that had flowers all over them matching the room decorations.
"Each of you take a seat." The witch said, as she pointed to three different tables in separate corners of the room done up in lace, each with a roll of parchment on them. Harry miserably tried to convince Umbridge to let him go for Friday like he had been ordered to, but Umbridge merely grinned and told him no then went on to tell him why she thought it such a good idea not to. Harry nodded as if he hadn't expected otherwise and headed for one of the tables while Kitty and Peter took their own seats.
"Now, you three are going to be doing some lines for me. No not with your quills, but with some of mine." She said, as she handed each of them a long thin black quill that were all unusually sharp.
"Now then Miss Pryde, I want you to write I will not interrupt." Kitty nodded as she examined the quill.
"Mr. Parker, I want you to write I will not insult my betters."
"As for you Mr. Potter, I want you to write I will not tell lies."
"Um, you haven't given us any ink." Harry pointed out to her.
Umbride smirked at them. "Oh, you won't need any ink Mr. Potter." She said with a laugh.
Peter and Kitty raised their eyebrows at this and began to examine the quills more carefully, but turned their heads at a gasp of pain from Harry. Peter and Kitty jumped from their chairs and looked at Harry's hand, which was quickly healing over. The two looked at the parchment where Harry had written and saw the shining red letters that were on the paper. Kitty picked the paper up and sniffed at it for a moment in disgust.
"Is there a problem Mr. Potter?" Umbridge asked, while smirking at the three of them.
"Nothing." Harry said, as he made to grab his quill again.
"In that case Mr. Parker, Miss. Pryde please return to your seats."
"You can't seriously plan on letting her do that to you Harry." Peter said not budging.
"I'm fine." Harry said stonily, as he wrote it out again slicing into his hand.
Kitty and Peter shook their heads in disbelief as they sat down in their own seats. Kitty glared at Umbridge before smirking at the toad like woman she picked her quill up and then made as if writing. Peter shook his head in disbelief as he watched Kitty start writing he thought she was tougher than that.
"Is there a problem Mr. Parker?"
"I think I have a question." Kitty said from her seat.
"Really? And what might that be? Were your instructions not simple enough?"
The mutant's eyes flashed at the slight on her intelligence. " Actually I was going to ask how are you going to get your quill out of this?" Kitty asked, as she leaned back from the parchment and Peter barely held back a chuckle as he saw that Kitty had phased the quill halfway into the table so it was now sticking up out of the desk.
"What spell did you use on my quill girl?" Umbridge asked angrily, as she glared at Kitty in what she probably thought was intimidating. Kitty had faced down the Norse God Loki after she and the X-Men had ruined one of his plans though, so the witch really didn't impress her much.
"I didn't use a single bit of magic on it." Kitty said smirking, while Harry and Peter held back their own chuckles.
"Back to your lines!" Umbridge growled at the two boys. Peter grinned, and while Umbridge was trying to figure out what Kitty had done to her quill, he pulled out a battery and snapped it open and used the acid on the point destroying the tip of the quill destroying the tip. "Hey Harry you can use mine I don't think it will matter if its as sharp looking." Peter then threw the quill to Harry, who saw the nub that was left, he then banished the other quill toward Peter who grinned as he accepted the quill. Umbridge spun around and glared at the remains of the quill that Harry now held.
The witch turned to look at Peter murderously. "What did you do to my quills?"
"Science." Peter said with the same air as someone might explain how they did something with magic. "My blood is not something you'll be getting today or any day."
Umbridge glowered at the two Americans "I have other ways to make things interesting for you during detention, if you think this inconvenience is going to save you from punishment perhaps seeing others in pain will let you realize how foolish it is to oppose me hmm? Continue Potter!"
Harry swallowed nervously and began writing I must not tell lies.
"Harry what do you think your doing?" Peter asked in shock. Harry didn't answer and instead continued to write. Peter made to move toward Harry and take the damaged quill away from Harry, but found that a sticking charm had been added to the seat he was in making it impossible to break free for the moment unless he just broke the desk and that might be a bit hard to explain away. He looked up and saw that Kitty appeared to be in a similar position as he was and was trying her best not to be obvious while she phased, but with the way Umbridge was watching both of them there was no way either of them were going to be able to get out of the chairs and stop Harry from doing what he was doing. Night came, and still they all sat there unable to do anything as Harry sliced his hand again and again with Umbridge's quill. A few hours later they were finally released from their sticking charms and told to go.
"And tomorrow I'll find something different for you two to do." Umbridge promised Peter and Kitty who merely glared at her in defiance as they took Harry with them.
The three returned to the common room and collapsed onto some chairs in front of the fireplace and looked into the dying flames. "Why did you do it Harry?" Kitty asked him curiously, "why did you cut into your hand like that? There is no way that what she is doing to you is legal."
"I've been hurt worse." The boy muttered softly in what he thought was a voice that was to quiet for anyone to hear but Kitty did catch it.
"Peter and I've been hurt a lot worse than that too, but it doesn't make it right. Harry what she's doing to you could be described as torture and that is punishable by law."
"Well what am I supposed to do?" Harry asked her coldly. "McGonagall has made it clear that she won't help me, Dumbledore is ignoring me and Hagrid's not even here to help me."
"Not sure buddy, but you can't allow her to get away with this sort of thing." Peter said as he tossed Harry a small vial. The boy caught it out of instinct and looked curiously at the bottle that held a red looking potion. "Its a Blood Replenishing potion, I lifted it off a seventh year who stole it from the medical wing. Half of that should be enough for what happened, but I would suggest you eat some oranges and what not tomorrow."
Harry nodded and drank half the bottle of the nasty tasting concoction and he admitted that he did feel a bit better.
"I'll 'borrow' some of the twin's blood replenishers so that you can stay on your feet, going through school with blood loss is not a fun thing to do." Peter told him in an experinced voice, as he patted the smaller teen comfortingly on the shoulder.
"Why are you willing to help me with all of this?" Harry asked them suspiciously. "You made it obvious that you don't care one way or the other which way this war goes."
"We all went to see McGonagall at the same time yesterday Harry; we now have to deal with Umbridge, which means that for now we are all bound by the brotherhood of detention." Peter said as if it was as simple as that.
The simplicity of the explanation reminded Harry of the twins, and how they often took up the odd cause for whatever reason that they saw for some reason or other.
"Although I have a question for you Harry, why were you willing to let her do that to you?" Kitty asked as she nodded toward his hand where he had been sliced on. "There is no way you should have to do that."
"I won't let her get the better of me," Harry said, "if she wants to make me crack then she's going to be in for a rude shock."
"And in the meantime your going to become what a staggering mess cause you can't do anything due to your blood loss?"
"Well, if you can think of a way to deal with this mess your welcome to." Harry said in annoyance.
"Well I don't know any, and we're obviously not going to be on her Christmas list this year." Kitty said lightly. "I don't think that she is going to trust us all that much."
"Then of course Kitty and I were put through a mild inquisition with Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there was more yet to come on that."
"Dumbledore actually talked with you?" Harry said jealousy colored his voice as he asked.
"Yeah," Peter said, "maybe its time you accept the fact that he's not going to tell you anything, and you figure out how you can learn things on your own."
"Like what?"
"You have that crazy map of yours right?" Harry nodded warily as he looked at the two suspiciously. "The twins told us about it while we were discussing things, that means you can know quiet a bit about the comings and goings around the castle it'll give you a bit of leverage with that kind of information. Also you have friends and allies, you just need to learn how to use them. Perhaps now that Dumbledore is ignoring you is the time for you to learn things on your own."
"Like what?"
"Like how to block the mental connection you have with Serpent for Brains."
"And how do I do that?"
"You have to learn how to block mental intrusion. Its something we can show you, but we do have other things to do. I suppose we can show you some of the basics though." Kitty said, as she thought it out. "I'll be honest with you though, I've never taught it before so it'll be tricky at times."
"We'll talk later." Peter assured him, "it's late, and your going to need your sleep, blood loss does that to you." He joked, the boy nodded and went upstairs. Peter shook his head in annoyance. "He's scared Kitty, Umbridge has him scared, and I don't think that he's going to willing tell anyone about what it is that he's having to do in detention, and we both know its going to get worse before it gets better. The Guardians told us to help the light, yet so far all we've done is make enemies and been forced to watch, while the kid is forced to destroy his own hand for having the courage to do what the adults won't." Peter slammed his fist into the wall cracking the stonework.
"I know." Kitty said as she grabbed his hand and held onto it to keep him from slamming his fist into the wall again. She had seen people destroy buildings and themselves in frustration before, and she knew that Peter was enough like Logan to go loco and try it here. "It's his choice though," she tried reasoning with him, "besides I hardly think you're someone who can go around and complain about people keeping all of their pain locked up." She said, making sure that she was looking him in the eyes, and for just a moment Kitty saw the injured young man in there before he regained control of his emotions and silenced all of them behind a mask.
Peter hung his head in shame as he looked at her. "Yeah, sorry about earlier, you were just a handy target. I should never have said any of that to you."
"You're right but I forgive you." The mutant told her teammate. "Come on, your to wired now to go to sleep now, lets get some more of that homework finished." She suggested to him. Peter nodded and the two gathered their homework papers and began working on the various reports that they needed to finish for their classes.
"You know I really wish Pioter was here to do this part." Kitty complained as she critically examined her bowtruckle picture.
"He likes to draw?" Peter asked curiously; as he thought of the big super strong Russian.
"He's a painter actually, but he draws extremely well as well. I have a couple of his paintings still on the island. One is of his sister and one is of Storm. He would probably feel insulted by all of the pictures here actually."
"How so?"
"The painting is what the artist captures, yet here magic captures a piece of the person instead of what the artist sees it seems to kind of detract from what an artist really needs to do."
"All right, so we do not bring up the fact there are paintings that act like A.I's here." Peter told her, while Kitty nodded in agreement.
The next day they had to deal with Transfiguration, COMC, and Astronomy. Kitty surprised everyone by knowing more than even Hermione did about the subject of Astronomy, which was just as much theory as it was study and theory was always Hermione's top skill. When questioned on why she had such an extensive knowledge on the subject Kitty had merely said that she had been forced to understand it for certain reasons. The comment had drawn a number of curious stares wondering what it was that would require that kind of knowledge for a teenage girl.
That night the three of them made their way back to Umbridge's office, all of them were wondering what the vile woman would have in store for them tonight. None of them were under any delusions, they knew that the woman would probably have something planned to counter Peter and Kitty for however they had done what they had done the night before. The woman probably wouldn't try to use the odd quills against them again at least. That only brought the question of what she did have planned for them for tonight though. The three of them entered the room and found the woman busily writing away on a piece of parchment, the three each took a seat at the tables and waited while the woman then handed Harry the same quill as last time, while Peter and Kitty were each given a bottle of ink and odd red quills that didn't have the unusually sharp tip to them.
"Now then Mr. Parker, Miss. Pryde, I believe that these quills won't cause a problem for you since they allow you to feel what you've done wrong." Umbridge said, as she picked up a red quill of her own and watched as the three began writing. The first thing Peter noticed was the pain that flew across his body as he wrote, the next thing was that he remembered exactly when he had last felt that particular pain across his body. The quill was somehow using his memories of old wounds against him, and reapplying their sensation to his body if he were to guess. A very cruel little device he thought. He looked up at the surprised grimace from Kitty, and figured that she was feeling something similar to what he was feeling. The pain was actually mild though compared to what he was used to since it was only his mind reliving an injury, and after he wrote again he ignored the pain and focused on the mental assault wishing that he had some mental abilities that would work against this sort of attack.
Peter and Kitty didn't even grace the woman with looking up they wouldn't let the woman know that her toys messed with them, though Peter swore that he saw a cut appear on Kitty's temple, but it then disappeared as fast as he saw it. He grimaced a bit as his own back felt on fire and the memory of the Puma scratching his back raced through his mind, he rolled his shoulders and stopped as he felt a sticky feeling on the back of his shirt beneath his jacket.
Peter gritted his teeth and reexamined the artifact that he was currently using, it must work as a combination of the blood quill and the sorting hat, since it seemed to focus more on memories and was somehow triggered by writing. He would have to see if he could recreate it for Matt, the blind vigilante would simply love to get his hands on something like this, it would work well with his whole justice is blind gig that he was always quoting paying back at a monster for their crimes. It would be great, especially if he could get it to mimic the memories of damage the user had inflicted onto other people. The only question was how was it getting past his mental shields? He knew he didn't have shields that were on par with a telepath, but that his shields were typical for your basic vigilante which ranked just below a member of the F.F's mental shields, in fact his might rank higher than Johnny's or Ben's since he had been on the receiving end of numerous mental attacks in his web swinging career. Perhaps the pen picked up on physical sensation and followed that memory into more painful ones, which meant that it was following his sensations.
The three returned to the dorm a little past midnight, and with the two Americans help and a couple of vials of Blood Replenishing Potions shared between the three of them, Harry managed to cobble his various homework projects into something that looked halfway decent and would keep him from failing all of his classes.
Peter and Kitty woke up earlier than usual the next morning and headed for the library where they began to go through various healing and charms books for a way to counter the blood and memory quills. As he was going through the various books, he came up with something that he was fairly sure would help out, though it might take him a at least two days to complete depending on how fast Brian could get the necessary materials to him. He explained his idea and Kitty agreed with his assessment and pointed out a few ways to improve what he planned. The two called Brian and explained the idea and Brian said that he would have everything ready by the time Wolvie showed up. Kitty looked at her watch and saw that they only had a few minutes till they had to go and grab the trio, and they dashed out of the library though Peter was sure he saw Kitty examining a large book that looked like it ought to be replaced before setting it back down and joining him.
The two reached their dorm and rousted their exercise buddies and headed for the doors. Harry and Hermione had decided on their choice of blades. Harry would use the broadsword, while Hermione would use a rapier similar to Peter's. Ron of course had yet to decide on a blade, thinking the whole concept to be a bit silly. The group then went and did their classes and Peter and Kitty continued to keep up, neither noticing the suspicious glances that the bushy haired girl who had been their tutor was now sending them from time to time. During dinner Peter was relieved to see a group of owls land before him and Kitty with the requested material.
"Hey Ron, after dinner can you place this stuff on my bed for me?" Peter asked pushing the box toward the red head, ignoring all of the curious stares he was getting over the box. He was only aware of the calculating looks that Dumbledore and Umbridge were giving him, since he was not exactly playing for either team but was a known associate of Harry which in both of their opinions he was sure meant badness though neither of them were going to currently try anything at the moment. Peter knew that he was making waves by seemingly becoming so close to Harry when in all actuality all he was doing was showing the guy how to stand on his own. Of course that might be why Dumbledore was wary of him, since it was obvious that he was used to people just accepting his word or being against him in some way.
As they were walking down the hallway Peter nodded at Kitty who sighed but agreed. "Harry we need to ask you to do something."
"What?" Harry asked tiredly, though there was a hint of suspicion in his voice.
Kitty smirked at him. "Don't worry, its nothing to horrible, we just want you to try and write really slow, it might make your agony last a bit longer, but you may not get as cut up either. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll have something that will help at least partially in blocking it if we figured it correctly."
"Really?" The boy asked skeptically.
"Yeah we've been spending our free library time in the library and even before and after training trying to figure out how to block those quills and what we have designed may or may not work but it might help."
"Eh I'll try anything at least once." Harry said to them, hoping that whatever their idea was that it would actually work. The three of them all wrote extremely slowly that night, much to the annoyance of Umbridge who couldn't say anything though since she thought that they might be feeling a bit timid after her treatments and thought that her task was nearly complete in quelling the fires of rebellion in the Gryffindors ranks if these three trouble makers were taken care of. There were a few others that would of course cause troubles, like the two older Weasley boys and their friends, but she would gladly take care of them as well.
The three were let out around 11 when Harry's hand had actually started to show the results of not fading. The slower writing method had helped him somewhat, but too much damage had already been done it seemed. Harry wrapped his hand in a Gryffindor scarf knowing that Kitty and Peter would help him treat the hand once they got back. The two had told him that he should at least tell his friends about what was happening in detentions, but the boy had stubbornly refused glad that at least they didn't think a teacher would help. The three rounded the corner and nearly ran into a hiding Ron Weasley who was skulking around the corner to the Dorm entrance.
"Ron, glad to see you." Peter said, as he clapped the teen on the back causing the red head to whirl around frantically as if he had just been caught doing something wrong.
"Hey," the boy said weakly, as he was now standing before the chuckling group. Ron frowned for a moment as he looked at them before turning away not seeming to want to look at Harry. "Hey Harry." He said a bit gruffly.
The amusement faded from Harry's eyes. "Ron." The dark haired boy said in confusion. "Something wrong?"
"You three just seem awfully chummy is all."
"Ron, Ron, after you've been through a detention with her alongside someone else you learn a lot about someone." Peter said, as he threw an arm over the blunt redhead's shoulders. "Kitty and I are in no way replacing you and Hermione and if you ever feel that we are you tell us so and we'll try and give the three of you some space how does that sound? Besides, we both have our groups of friends back home that we would rather be with than here. I mean your brothers remind me of Johnny and Bobby a lot and Kitty, well she has a whole family of friends whose idea of a good time is usually to blow something up."
"Really?" The boy asked uncertainly.
"Really," Kitty said smiling in understanding, she remembered when she had met Jubilee, it was like she had been replaced till she learned what kind of connection her mentor and the firecracker had. In a way she had been replaced but she also didn't need Logan to be her protector anymore, though she was sure that if she wasn't watching he would try and do it. "We need to borrow him for like 20 minutes after we get back, and then you two can talk about anything and everything you want." She promised him.
"Yeah, like why you have your broomstick out this late." Harry said pushing his hair out of his face. Ron then noticed the cut on his hand and the two spent ten minutes talking about their evenings for the past week. Harry grinned a bit at Ron's righteous indignation for him.
The four entered the dorm and the group all rushed upstairs and Peter pulled open the box that was sitting on his bed and pulled out a variety of what looked like gloves that went all the way up to the elbow. "Here try this one." Peter said, as he tossed a small glove toward Harry who found the glove fit perfectly. Peter took the glove off, and began muttering charms while Kitty began to doctor Harry's hand, when Hermione slipped in a worried look on her face, she stifled a gasp when she saw Harry's sliced hand though.
"Harry, what happened to your hand?" She questioned, as she looked at the cuts in his hand.
"Um well." Harry said suddenly very nervous.
"No lying." Kitty said, as she liberally poured peroxide into the cut, which started to foam.
"All right, Umbridge did this." Harry admitted grudgingly hissing in pain, his eyes going back a forth between the two girls with a bit of fear as they glared at him.
"Smart guy, I would be scared if those two were glaring at me like that to." Peter mumbled to Ron who snickered at his best friend's predicament.
Kitty finished applying medicines to the cut, and allowed Hermione to look at what she had; the two then wrapped his hand in a bandage and then enlarged one of his seeker gloves.
"Keep that on all night Harry." Hermione ordered her friend. "The scarring may fade with time." She said with a hopeful note in her voice, she then turned to look at Peter who was holding an ugly looking glove and muttering charms under his breath while consulting a couple of books the witch quickly picked up on what they were doing and began helping, her larger experience in magic showing as they applied their spells. Kitty joined in as well and Ron and Harry added in the occasional spell as well, but were mainly told to hand the three of them a different book or other. When they finished, they held a glove in their hand that looked just like Harry's hand.
"Here Harry." Hermione said, "Wear this when your writing tomorrow, and it should deal with at least 40 percent of the problem that that hag is doing to you."
"Won't she realize what's going on though?" Harry questioned as he looked the thing over.
"Considering that this is probably one of the first of its kind in the magical world its doubtful." Kitty said, "the glove is a type of armor already I really can't tell you a whole bunch about it, other than the fact that it fits like spandex, but is tougher than Kevlar. I'm not sure how good it'll do against magic, but added in with the spells we've added it should help, though you may feel the cuts elsewhere on your arm, that was a great addition to add in Hermione."
The witch blushed at this. "I just thought it would help some." She said, "your red ink charm should work pretty well as well though, and Peter's charm to make it feel like human skin if someone touched it should keep it a secret."
"Hey Hermione what's Kevlar?" Ron asked as he poked the limp glove suspiciously.
"It's a type of material that is used in muggle body armor Ron." The witch explained rolling her eyes at him.
On Friday the group trained and took their showers, a still complaining Ron staggered into the room where he then changed and showered and the five headed down for breakfast. The American duo watched as Harry looked expectantly toward the teacher's table before his shoulders sagged in sorrow like he had been expecting someone or something to be there. From earlier conversations Kitty had deduced that Harry was still waiting for his friend and protector to come back, Harry was waiting for Hagrid to show up. Classes continued as usual, though Peter and Snape had another one of their discussions that went back and forth a few times, and Kitty had started to teach the fifth years how to curse at Snape and the Slytherians in various languages. So far she had stuck to Spanish though, since there was a chance someone else might know one of the other languages. The twins in fact always came for her cursing lessons as they had taken to calling them.
The three finally made their way for their last detention, and Harry slipped his glove on and Peter tossed Kitty a bracelet that she tried to give him but the teen merely shook his head.
"Besides, if Johnny ever knew that I wore that he would never let me hear the end of it." Peter said for explanation. "It's a bit to girly for my tastes, but hey you're a dancer and a girl, you can get away with it."
"Thanks." Kitty said dryly with a smile. "But I have better shields than you do."
"Then you can be the one to drag me out of the chair." Peter joked, as he pushed the door open and the three of them filed in and slowly sat down and began writing their required lines. They wrote hour after hour, and it wasn't until dark that Umbridge got up and looked Harry's hand over. The glove had mimicked the same things as had happened to his hand the previous nights, though they weren't sure how much longer that particular charm was going to last. When the woman finished gloating she checked the scar that Harry made his first sound, as a hiss of pain came from him. "Well I think I've made my point Mr. Potter." She said releasing his hand; she then turned to the other two. "And I'm sure that this was a memorable detention for the two of you as well." The woman said, before she shooed them all out.
"What happened Harry did the glove respond wrong?" Peter asked with concern once they were at what he hoped was a suitable distance away.
"Its my scar." The boy explained pointing to his head. "Something's wrong, could Umbridge be a Death Eater?"
"As much as I think she's a sick twisted cow I don't think so, I think you have a bunch of power hungry fools who are trying to destroy you and she's just one of the tools that they're using. The fact it suits Voldemort for them to tear you apart is just icing on the cake. Talk to Ron and Hermione though, they understand you and your scar better than we ever will." Peter admitted, knowing that it was the truth, these guys were a team that had been forged in combat over the years and knew each other better than they might believe.
"So you do believe in his being back?"
"I never doubted it, I just have other concerns than magical Dark Lords." Peter said shrugging. "It's nothing personal, but we all have our own monster we have to deal with and sometimes we hurt the ones that are trying to help us." Harry was silent as he thought that out.
They entered the room and were nearly bombarded with people as they were greeted. A large party had been started to welcome the newest member of their team it seemed. Harry congratulated Ron then joined Hermione at a table while Peter and Kitty joined the twins and Lee in a juggling contest.
"All right, here's the rules mates, first one to drop a bottle looses, no touching another person's bottles with magic, anything else goes." George said, tossing a pair of bottles at each of them. "You sure you want to get involved in this? Forge and I are the champion jugglers."
"Definitely." Kitty said with a grin as she accepted her bottles.
"Why not?" Peter said grinning as he took his own bottles.
The five teens each started with two bottles, and every 30 seconds a bottle was being tossed into the air to join the flying bottles. Peter focused on his bottles, and watched as each and everyone of the bottles was tossed into the air flying. As he focused he lost himself in what he was doing, he was no longer Peter Parker, nor was he Spiderman, he was just a teen for the moment having a bit of fun and using his abilities to enjoy himself. He was going on twelve bottles when he remembered himself and grinned weakly at the crowd that was watching him and at the twins who were watching him in awe. The way to make this perfect would be Mary Jane he thought before he remembered. He dropped the bottles, and several people let out awes of disappointment thinking that they had somehow distracted the American into loosing his concentration on the task.
"Team juggle competition!" The twins yelled, sensing the change in their friend who had just wowed them. Peter and Kitty faced each other and began to juggle, but while individually they were both extremely good as a team they were not able to compete, against twins who claimed an easy victory over their friends. The two begged off a rematch and headed across the room to join Hermione and Harry who looked like they were getting ready to pack up their stuff. Hermione said something that Harry looked like he was having trouble deciding on when the two finally made their way over to them. "Hey guys, what's up?" Kitty asked them.
"Oh, we were getting ready to go to bed and I was asking Harry if he wanted to help me make hats for the elves tomorrow." Hermione told them eagerly. "You two can join us as well of course."
"Sure we will." Peter said kicking Harry in the shin before he could protest. "We'd be happy to help you out Hermione, after all its what friends do. Right Harry?"
Harry let out a sigh of defeat and nodded while forcing a grin on his face. "Sure Mione, I'd love to help you." He said weakly.
"Great how about we do it over lunch?" Kitty asked them all, not waiting for either of the boys to talk she continued on though. "Hermione brings the sewing stuff, Harry and Peter collect stuff for lunch, for say a picnic and I'll bring the music."
"All right." Hermione said nodding her head in agreement. "So how did the glove work?" She finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her
Harry pulled the glove off his arm and they all grinned as they saw that the cut hadn't been cut into very much.
Peter and Harry went upstairs to avoid the party once they were upstairs Harry looked mutinously at Peter. "Why did you say we would help Hermione with sewing?" He demanded of the American. "I really don't want to do this."
"Maybe," Peter said, "but you owe her one for helping out with that glove, as it is it might not have been finished on time to do what we managed to get it to do. With her help we may have saved your hand from any major scarring, so its time to repay the favor. And if that means spending a few hours during and after lunch sewing you'll do it. You got me? Besides do you even understand what's so bad about slavery?"
"From the way their lives are described, it sounds kind of like mine actually." Harry said defiantly. "You don't see her trying to help me though do you?"
"What?" Peter asked in surprise. He had known Harry's home life was bad, but if it was really as bad as he was describing he was going to have to do something about it. "Look, how about you tell her and see if she can't come up with a way for you to have a better life? Who knows maybe this is her odd girl way of telling you that she's willing to help you if you'll let her in about your life." Peter told him. "I mean she is willing to risk her life for you."
"Well why can't she just say it then?"
"Because she is a female and you simply aren't allowed to understand how the female brain works, its against the code of life somehow."
"Great." Harry groaned miserably
"Just get some sleep, we still have training tomorrow." Peter informed him. "There is no way your getting off just cause there's a party going on downstairs."
"Right." Harry said sighing in agony, as he got ready for bed.
"Tell you what though, I'll talk it over with Kitty and get you an extra hour of sleep though." Peter said helpfully.
"Great. Harry said, as he closed the curtains on his bed.
I'm tempted to make this H/Hr votes will determine if it will stay true to the books or go this way since I am an H/Hr lover.